I
was born in a Prefab built on bomb rubble in one of the poorer areas of
London, England, after the Second World War. What had once been a
densely packed industrial/ residential area alongside the Grand Surry
Canal was quickly leveled by the notorious V1 and V2 bombs during the
Blitz. The V2 Rockets were the first ballistic missiles. They weighed 13
tons and traveled faster than the speed of sound giving people no
warning of their imminent arrival. The street I was born on was leveled
by a V1 bomb, a pilotless plane also known as a Doodlebug.
Our
Prefab had arrived in a box, was deposited on the leveled rubble and
built in 48 hours. These houses weren't built to last, but were built to
warehouse all of those who had been dispossessed because of the
devastation of war and its resulting acute housing shortage. The fact
that in some instances war-damaged aircraft were melted down to produce
these houses and that POWs assisted in their construction, helped to
make the Prefab a symbol of Britain rising from the ashes of war.. Newly
transferred by the BBC from Edinburgh to London to cover the 1948
Olympics, my father along with my mother saw first hand the devastation
that the war had wreaked during the Blitz. That,coupled with having to
adjust to a Cockney dialect made them feel as if they had stepped into a
foreign land.
In time all housing eventually was removed and the area was
turned into Burgess Park. It sits on 50 hectares in the poorest part of one of
London’s most deprived boroughs with about 70,000 people living within 5km of
the park. In 2009 a successful bid raised close to $3
million dollars to refurbish the park to become a family friendly place
where densely packed urban dwellers could enjoy green space.
The ruins of Jardin Street, London, the site where I was born. The grounds were leveled and the Prefabs erected. This area is now Burgess Park
Burgess Park. I think the symbol of a butterfly is highly appropriate.